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I have been using this setup with my laptop for 18 months so I am familiar with extended screen usage. Two days ago a problem started. I have a laptop with 17" screen set to the Main Display plus a 22" not checked to be the Main Display. Screen Resolution > Multiple Displays = Extend these displays. Desktop right click > View > Auto Arrange is Not checked. Sort By options are unchecked. Personalization > Allow themes to change desktop icons is Not checked.
I have all my desktop icons arranged on the laptop screen which is set to be Main Display.
New Problem:
When I plug the extended monitor cable into the laptop or when I fresh bootup or if I had changed the Appearance settings from extended to duplicate or to the external 22" to be off and then turn it back to being extended, any of those things, to basically use the 2nd monitor as extended will cause all the desktop icons to move to the extended 22" screen space. They are supposed to stay anchored to the laptop Main screen since that is how it is allocated. This worked fine until two days ago and I was not playing with any settings before it happened.
If I unplug the external monitor or set it to be unused or as a duplicate image then the icons return to the main laptop monitor.
I use a freeware IconRestorer to save and restore the last saved desktop layout. Since this problem started it restores to the extended monitor not back to the laptop main screen like it had previously. I have killed IconRestorer from the background to see if it was causing the problem and it had no affect.
With the icons showing on the extended 22" monitor and I unplug the video cable for it the icons move to the laptop screen however they are rearranged. Each time I try that the icons form a different layout and order on the laptop screen.
I can then run IconRestorer with the 22" still unplugged from the laptop and all the icons will be restored properly. So I conclude IconRestorer is working fine. The problem seems to be that Win 7 thinks the Laptop screen is not the main screen even though it is checked as to be the main screen.
Once only while repeating these various steps, after the icons are restored with the 2nd monitor unplugged, then plug it back in all looks fine but if I do the IconRestorer restore all the icons again get placed to the extended 22" screen. Usually plugging the extended monitor back in causes the icons to jump to that monitor.
Note that when the laptop is checked to be the Main screen the taskbar is located on the laptop monitor so it only partially thinks the extended screen should be the main screen. If I set the extended 22" as the Main screen then the task bar jumps to the extended screen and all the desktop icons come back to the laptop screen.
It never worked like that before. I also am running win 7 on desktop with 4 monitors and all icons being on main screen at far left and that still works fine including the use of IconRestorer.
***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***
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Same problem today on Win 10 (1703) ...
None of the other tips worked, but the tip about size worked in some part:
Large icons -> correct display, medium icons -> correct display and small
icons -> wrong display.
Solution: I just selected all icons on the wrong display with my mouse and
moved them to the correct display, and hey, presto, they now stay there ...
"whatever I do" ...
I had a similar experience with my Desktop - recently for one user-id only, the Desktop icons would appear upon login, on the "Extended to" screen. The only solution that worked for me was the following:
From the taskbar, right-click and select Taskbar settings.
Select "Themes" from the left-hand side menu
Then in the top right of the screen select "Desktop icon settings"
Hit "Restore Default", and uncheck all the Desktop icon checkboxes, also unselect "Allow themes to change desktop icons" then hit Apply.
Hopefully this will reinstate the Desktop icons back to the Main display.
You can then reselect the Desktop icons checkboxes, if you had then previously selected.
For now, I'm leaving the "Allow themes to change desktop icons" unchecked.
I can’t keep my desktop icons from sometimes showing up on monitor 2, but I can easily move them back to monitor 1.
1 Left click an empty spot on monitor 2,
2 Press control + A (to select all the icons on monitor 2),
3 Click and drag the upper left icon (my monitor 2 is on the right of monitor 1) over to the identical position on monitor 1
(all icons should move), and
4 Release the mouse button.
All your desktop icon should now be aligned on monitor 1 instead of monitor 2.
Same issue here. It does not have this problem in windows 8.1
Went through a whole whack of forums with this problem and I still couldn’t get a fix. Frustrated I tried this procedure on desktop #2 which the icons moved to.
That what worked for me.
Sorry just realized this was answered when I hit post and it went to the end. Sorry
ST
StewartShane who had the answer already.
